The use of dry food is the most common way to feed dogs in Finland and around the world. Raw feeding is the most prominent on social media, but in terms of quantity, it is probably the rarest method in terms of market share, despite its loud presence. Of course, there is no researched statistical data on the subject, at least publicly. Overshadowed by raw feeding is the more common feeding method, the 50/50 style.
In 50/50 feeding, dry food and meat are used together. For the owner, it is an easy and safe method, and for the store, an interesting solution because it allows selling two different product categories to the customer. Since other feeding styles have made feeding dogs either difficult in execution or dangerous when anything is changed (in their image, not in real life), 50/50 feeding has raised many questions from both sides of the feeding “fence”.
What 50/50 means
Mix dry food and meat, either in the same bowl or on the same day. The ratios can vary, and while one person has exactly the same amount of both, another has more dry food, and a third focuses on a larger amount of meat in the bowl. Don’t let the name bind you; it’s just a descriptive name that came into use only because mixed feeding meant something else —mixing human and dog foods.
50/50 feeding means such an amount
- of dry food that no supplements are needed
- of meat that the dog doesn’t lose weight
Genuinely, the ratio of dry food to meat can be anything from half-and-half to just a little dry food or just a morsel of meat. It entirely depends on what the owner wants, what the dog needs, and how the food happens to end up in the bowl.
Common questions
Although 50/50 feeding is extremely easy to implement, people are still troubled by various things. Let’s try to answer a few of the most common ones. It’s impossible to provide a pure do-this guide because dogs are different and even vary in size. So you’ll need to think a little and then adapt. If you encounter an insurmountable obstacle, shout for help in the comments —the best option is a comment that goes to the Poochie forum (if it opens in the near future to come). That way, the question stays with the text, and someone else might benefit from the answers. In Facebook groups, the enthusiasm to answer tends to decrease when the same question is asked in a dozen different threads.
And when talking about food amounts, we’re always talking about the total daily food amount, not a single portion—unless otherwise stated.
How much dry food?
The easy answer is to take away half of the amount you would give just dry food. So if you use, for example, 5 dl of dry food a day, reduce it by half and give 2.5 dl. However, food isn’t about decimals, so as long as you put 2–3 dl, everything is fine. And the rest is meat.
The harder answer is that there must be at least enough dry food to meet the dog’s minimum calcium requirement. A rule of thumb is that at least a third of the manufacturer’s recommended amount must be given per day. If you want to be precise, it must be calculated.
- The dog’s calcium need is 130 mg/kgME, so for a 30-kilo dog, the need would be calculated as 30^0.75×130=1666 mg, or about 1.7 grams
- Check the calcium amount on the bag, which is stated as a percentage. For example, 1.2%
- Calculate the required food amount with the formula 100×1.7/1.2=142 g. At least that much dry food is needed for a 30-kilo dog to meet the minimum calcium requirement; usually, other vitamins and trace elements follow suit. If the recommendation was 350 g, then the required amount of dry food would be about 40%, so the one-third rule of thumb would be close enough.
How much meat?
The easy answer is twice as much as the amount of dry food you removed. So if you reduced dry food by 2.5 dl, replace it with about 5 dl of meat. Now it looks like there’s 1/3 dry food and 2/3 meat in the bowl, yet it’s still called 50/50 feeding… It still is about half and half because meat contains much more water.
If you soak the dry food in a significant amount of water, you can then remove half from the bowl and add the same amount of meat. But no one takes wet dry food from the bag, only dry. If you’re now wondering what the original unsoaked dry food amount was, we’re back to the amounts in the first paragraph.
If the dog gains weight, reduce the meat, thereby reducing the portion. If the dog loses weight, add meat, thereby increasing the portion
And vice versa. If the dry food is for active dogs with 20% fat, and the meat is lean with 10% fat, the dog will undoubtedly become reasonably lean after a while.
The rule of thumb is that the meat should be just slightly fattier than the dry food used.
The harder answer is to calculate the amount of protein and fat and add meat accordingly. The only truly useful calculation is for fat. Simply because protein compositions are not comparable since meat has a better amino acid profile. If we play with the dog’s protein requirement as 5 g/kgBW, the same intake from meat would be about 3 g/kgBW—not exact, but the scale is correct.
The calculation of fat amount is based on one and only one reason: weight. When dry food is reduced, the meat must provide the same amount of usable calories. A high-end enthusiast even calculates the reduced carbohydrate and accounts for it in the meat fat, but I consider that just a clever mathematical exercise. We don’t know the digestibility of carbohydrates, so calorie calculations only tell about the energy content analysis, not the dog’s energy metabolism. If we go down that route, we should also consider the length of fatty acid chains and their significance for energy use and then balance it with meat. Calculable, of course, but since we don’t know the recipes of dry foods, the starting values would be mere guesses. So let’s stick to one-to-one grams.
- 350 grams with 16% fat provides 56 grams
- 150 grams would provide 24 grams, so the difference would be 32 grams
- Meat with 16% fat would require 100×32/16=200 grams
What dry food should you buy, a quality one?
The easy answer is to buy whatever you want. The brand and what you consider quality don’t matter. They are all the same.
The harder answer is also easy. Dry foods must meet the same NRC requirements for protective nutrients, practically vitamins and minerals, which have been adapted to the form desired by manufacturers for recipe building in the EU area as standards set by FEDIAF. Of course, there are certain minimum and maximum amounts, but practically every food offers the exact same amounts. Differences, such as in the amount of calcium, are insignificant. Even foods made for activity levels or age stages, practically high energy and puppy foods, don’t genuinely differ from others except in the total amount of protein and fat, and the need calculations are handled by stating a larger recommended portion size.
Since the nutritional content regarding vitamins and minerals is largely the same, and since the role of dry food in 50/50 feeding is specifically to provide vitamins and minerals, the price of the food, the target dog, or the perceived quality by consumers doesn’t matter. Regarding quality, which is a marketing term, one could even argue that most expensive foods perceived as high quality are actually of the poorest quality.
Quality in 50/50 feeding should be considered based on how well the food suits that specific dog’s stomach, and no one can predict or promise that in advance.
Are any supplements needed?
The easy answer is no, they are not needed. But it would be absolutely beneficial to add zinc and vitamin D, as they are otherwise slightly borderline in dry foods. One reason why the coat might be poor.
Now you need to do a bit of multiplication. Zinc should be added at least 1 mg/kg and vitamin D 0.5 micrograms per weight kilo. A 30-kilo dog would need about 30 mg of zinc from a supplement every day. But in Finland, 25 mg tablets are mostly sold, so let’s go with that. The same dog would need 0.5×30=15 micrograms of vitamin D per day. Again, a dose not found on the market, but 12.5 microgram ones are available, so you can use that. Or give vitamin D, being a well-stored vitamin, once a week, multiplying the daily dose by seven: 7×15=105 micrograms. Again, a dose not sold, but 50, 100, and 125 microgram ones are available. You can use any of them, but you’ll get the best (read: cheapest) price with 125 microgram ones purchased online. A sensible purchase for both the owner and the dog.
Liver is never wrong. It provides a boost for vitamin A and many other absolutely beneficial trace elements and a slew of B vitamins. The amount could be once a day, about 0.1 g/kg (about 4 g/30 kg), so really little. By multiplying that amount by seven and giving the liver once a week, it’s better than none. You can also give the liver dried, using it as a treat (if you can still find dried liver or dry it yourself). The amount is the same as with fresh. And overdosing is not dangerous as long as the stomach doesn’t get upset.
The easiest way is to give premade liver casserole. The amount can be calculated through the liver, but if you go by the measure of giving three tablespoons a day for each size category, a 400-gram box will last about a week.
But none of these are absolutely mandatory. You can go without them, and the dog won’t have deficiencies. That’s precisely the beauty of 50/50 feeding. It’s easy and safe!
The harder answer would be so long and convoluted that I don’t feel like writing it. You need to calculate the intake of each “key nutrient” separately from the dry food and then fill in the missing amounts with either food items or supplements:
- calcium
- zinc
- iodine
- vitamin A
- vitamin D
- vitamin E
The workload is already at such a scale that it’s the same to switch the dog entirely to raw feeding and then calculate its feeding to the last detail. The idea of 50/50 feeding is precisely to reduce work and make life easier. Instead, with raw feeding, the challenge and difficulty have been mentally accepted in advance—which I really don’t understand.
If you’re interested in breaking down food into its smallest parts and understanding what, where, and why, I strongly recommend you consider a nutrition coach and expand your interest towards customer acquisition.
Can meat and dry food be mixed?
The easy answer is yes, absolutely. Meat and dry food digest just as they should and in the right order. Mixing them does not cause gas, stomach torsion, poorer digestion, acid problems, stomach ulcers, or the death or injury of the dog in any way.
You can give them separately if you want. Or meat every other day, dry food every other day. Weekly feeding starts to be too infrequent. But otherwise, you can give it however you like and what suits your dog if it has special requirements. Mixing meat and dry food is no different than giving human leftovers as a topping on dry food—which many do without worries.
The harder answer is that there’s nothing difficult about it. Simple stuff, go ahead.
Is the world a better place with 50/50 feeding?
No idea. But the dog is happier. And healthier in a tastier way.
